Module 12
Technology and the Modern Age (1970s-early 2000s)
- Space Technology
- 1957 USSR launches Sputnik, Eisenhower and US responds with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and several probe launches of their own
- manned flight expanded after 1961, JFK $33 billion dollar funding to reach the moon in the early 1960s (Apollo Missions: Neil Armstrong on moon by 1969)
- Reagan advocated use of space for nuclear weapons with the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or “Star Wars” program
- 1980s saw intro of first shuttles and all was well, until the Challenger accident in 1986 with death of civilian teacher Christa McCauliff and the entire shuttle drew
- 1990s to now, flights to outer reaches of the Milky Way–Mars, other galaxies are being mapped by distant US probes
- International Space Station—massive coordinated effort by multinational space programs to build a universal access in-situ orbital space station for mutual scientific development and space exploration
- February 2003 Columbia Disaster, destruction during reentry of space shuttle and her crew on a “routine” mission, confidence in American space program was further shaken in the wake of September 11th bombings and some began to question anew the relevance of space flight
- Fall 2004, X-Prize winners creates first viable ground-to-air space vehicle
- 2007/2008, move toward eliminating the aging shuttle fleet, return to rocket technology and increasing development of private space enterprises (more for commercial and entertainment use than military one-upmanship and scientific endeavor as had been the previous focus)
- Computer Age
- First used to decode messages and run mathematical equations for scientists, adapted by 1950s and 1960s for military and space exploration still some science use and development
- burgeoning computer industry and military contracts in the 1970s kept part of the economy afloat during inflationary years
- 1980s and Silicon Valley, CA: boom in computer industry
- development of the microchip is revolutionary; advances also in microelectronics, biotechnology, and robotics
- lost boomtown feel by early 1990s as competition increased
- By mid-1990s, over 30 million had email. WELL, a computer network with thousands of subscribers, helped create a virtual community. Early use through Prodigy and others—“cyberspace” emerges to reach out within and across nations.
- Current status of email users increases exponentially each day, internet is largest interactive and asynchronous communication system which exists as a relatively free medium of exchange.
- World Wide Web is creating the single largest compendium of information that the world has ever seen; most of which is readily accessible by anyone, anywhere, anytime.
- Telecommunications Advances
- Satellites, VCRs, and Cable TV revolutionized the entertainment industry by the 1980s; early 2000s advances in digital cable, DVD/DVR players, and plasma screen TVs as a reflection of this techno revolution
- MTV transformed music business and made it truly global, mass marketing and dominance in popular culture (set trends), now are multitude of cable music networks such as VH-1, segments of BET, CMT, TNN, etc. Cable has audio-only digital music and satellite radio is also widely available. Web audio outlets and broadcasts common place among internet uses.
- Some historians argue that computer age and mass communications therein played a role in ending the Cold War–1989 the Berlin Wall was removed and the Soviet Union collapsed shortly thereafter, insurgency fed by computer access to technology and information–also new jobs becoming available through computer industry have raised standard of living and increased jobs around the globe
- Cellular phones and wireless communications; radio phones and early remote access telephony from the 1940s rapidly took hold as “car phone” technology in the 1980s. Early 2000s reveals mass use of cell phones, even replacement of land lines as main communication source for some persons and in remote areas.
- Merging of cellular phone technology and computer savvy bring a new wave of mobile access with the advent of email-enabled cell phones devices (ex. Blackberry) and instant messaging—so pervasive that schools ban the practice of “text messaging” during class time even while mobile companies market to every age.
- Medical Technology
- advances in immunology from the 1940s, vaccines for polio and antibiotics that were stronger and better (Pharmaceutical companies boom after 1960s but many move operations off shore to reduce costs and circumvent FDA regulatory oversight)
- psychoactive drugs (1960s and 1970s) for mental patients allowed controls over many violent or disconnected people, led to de-institutionalization of many patients on assumption that they would continue to take medicines, this had the net effect of increasing homeless and vagrant persons (when those same patients lapsed their medications)
- birth control pills, IUDs on the 1960s (later discredited as dangerous but revived in the 2000s), pregnancy prevention injectables such as Depo-Provera emerge as do subcutaneous strips (latter favored for active duty military personnel), newest wave includes products like Seasonale (patch system that reduces menstruation while preventing ovulation) and male birth control pill plus female condoms (equality in prevention, an interesting move though one little favored at this point)
- AIDS crisis by 1981 shocked medical community, and along with onslaught of drug overdoses, strained resources for a seemingly social problems turned medical issues.
- now have developed some AIDS cocktails and anti-OD medications but much still needs doing.
- Prevention is still the single most effective means to combat new infections with HIV (precursor to AIDS). However, the greatest danger from new infections has appeared at an alarming rate in the early 2000s amongst America’s youth and young adults, ages 18 to 36 with rates among teenagers 13-17 shortly behind.
- Human Genome project of the 1990s, mapping entire human genome and DNA structure
- companies have patents on certain genes that they discovered–controls who can use to do research and develop medicines or treatments using those genes
- cloning has also emerged as serious issue, debate over human cloning is ongoing though it has been banned in some nations but not the United States (despite repeated attempts by President GW Bush to promote this legislation since 2002 and passage of the bill by the US House of Representatives thereafter, the ban has not become national law)
- debates over the use of embryonic stem cell research have also emerged, while partial approval has been authorized for use of already destroyed embryos, ethical and moral concerns are warring with the desire for scientific inquiry to cure major diseases and a solution has yet to be reached